Hickenlooper Predicts BEAD Success, ACP Renewal

DENVER -- Sen. John Hickenlooper sees no hurdles to broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program success, the Colorado Democrat said Tuesday. At the Mountain Connect conference, Hickenlooper, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) and multiple states' broadband officials largely sounded upbeat on achieving universal access within a decade. Also, Hickenlooper expects “tremendous pressure” to reup the affordable connectivity program (ACP), but said debt concerns might limit how much funding it receives from Congress.

BEAD is a chance to show “government can work,” Hickenlooper said. “Even if we can only get to 98%, it will be such a dramatic improvement.” The senator doesn’t “see any big obstacles” to BEAD success, he said. “We have historically underfunded broadband,” but “this is sufficient funding.” The Democrat said he’s technology-agnostic and trusts the process to find the best way to connect people.

Congress will fund ACP to continue the low-income program, predicted Hickenlooper. But because of strong concern about the national debt, “the funding will be right on the razor’s edge,” he said. “It won’t be quite enough.”

Colorado has a goal of connecting 99% of households to high-speed internet by 2027, “and we are going to get that done,” said Polis. States have “tremendous opportunity” with federal funding to “finally make a big difference,” the governor said. “No one in today's world should be left in the dark when it comes to broadband access."

With an $826.5 million BEAD allocation, Colorado is “really in a good place to execute,” said Brandy Reitter, the state broadband office’s executive director. “Fixed wireless is absolutely part of the equation for Colorado,” she said. The NTIA program has a fiber preference, but it will be hard to reach the state’s box canyons and many other parts with fiber, said Reitter: “We’re going to spend all that $826.5 million probably on wireless or some version of it.”

“Middle mile is a huge problem” for Colorado, said Reitter, estimating more than 500 miles of missing middle-mile infrastructure. “As a state, we’re going to have to take it on ourselves.” The state will try to tackle the issue in the coming legislative session, she said.

The Colorado broadband office plans to publish its five-year action plan Monday, said Reitter. The office is nearly finished writing volume one of its initial proposal and will post that for public comment later this month, said Reitter: The challenge process will follow.

Louisiana is moving “with a sense of urgency’ to achieve universal coverage and improve citizens’ lives, said Thomas Tyler, that state broadband office’s deputy director. The state often comes in 49th or 50th in various quality-of-life metrics, he said. “We haven’t excelled in a lot … and this is the opportunity for our state to change that.”

The Louisiana broadband office is sifting through comments on its BEAD five-year action plan and initial proposal’s first volume, said Tyler: It plans to release a draft of volume two next week and will collect comments for 30 days. Louisiana aims to hold its challenge process from September to December, he said.

Utah and Illinois face Saturday deadlines to file final BEAD and digital equity plans to NTIA, said their broadband office leaders. Utah also is working on its initial proposal, said Utah Broadband Center Director Rebecca Dilg. The Illinois broadband office hopes to publish volume two of its initial proposal later this month, said Director Matt Schmit. Conversation on what areas are unserved will continue beyond the formal challenge process this fall, he said.

Louisiana is requiring reporting from entities that won Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) support, said Tyler. If the office sees some RDOF recipients are at risk of default or won’t go into certain areas, the state will be able to consider that in its BEAD planning, he said. If providers fail to report in two straight quarters, the state will consider those areas unserved, he said.